Bad Idea
by AshleyNicole86
Summary: Diesel pops in to see Stephanie for his vacation. Stephanie thinks there is more to his visit than meets the eye. What happens when a drunken night brings them closer than they bargained for? And how will Ranger take it? Lemony Goodness.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone! New Story!!! Yay! Don't worry I'll still be working on Operation Tastykake.**

**I dont own these characters blagh blagh blagh. **

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I had a problem. I was in the middle of the street with a naked man underneath me. Normally I wouldn't mind having a naked man under me but this man was none of the three men in my life.

Carlo Ricci was a skinny little guy who was on my list of FTA's. I'd apprehended him in the shower and after a brief scuffle I found myself sitting on him in middle of the street. I'd lost my cuffs, stun gun and pepper spray somewhere along the way.

I'd tried to stand up and drag Ricci off but he'd bitten me, hard. So now I was sitting on his back so that he couldn't bite me again. I felt the air pressure change and sighed. Diesel would never let me live this one down. I hadn't seen Diesel since early November. We'd had a weird experience involving rockets and a cast of strange characters.

"Heya Shortie. Need some help?" He paused for a second, "With the naked, weaponless man?" I turned my head to look at him and couldn't help but smile. Diesel was in his usual outfit of jeans, t-shirt and smart ass smirk. No jacket. It was pretty warm for April and Diesel was gorgeous. I liked it better when he didn't wear jackets. Or shirts. But that is a whole other story.

I ran through my options. I could let Diesel help but he would probably make fun of me for the rest of our lives. However he'd probably do that even if he didn't help. Plus if he didn't help I'd probably end up taking Ricci in to the cop shop naked. The cops thought it was great when I brought in naked FTA's.

"Well it is pretty funny. You seem to catch more guys naked than clothed."

"Stop listening to my thoughts!" I sounded kinda grouchy.

He winked at me, "Okay." I pictured Diesel naked and Diesel grinned. He was still listening. Agh!

I stood up and Ricci tried to scramble away. Diesel caught him by his scrawny little chicken neck and stood him up on his feet. "You are going to go into your house and put some clothes on. You will then allow Ms. Plum to cuff you and you will go with her to the police station. You will say thank you for the ride. You will not try to run away or I will make you wish for the protection that a jail cell would bring you." Cripes. Diesel was scary. He set chicken neck guy down and watched him walk into his house.

"He's just going to out the back door."

"I know." He waited about 20 seconds and popped out of my sight. I heard a scream of terror and Diesel came around the side of the house with Ricci cuffed and slung over his shoulder. He dumped Ricci into the back of my new-to me-Jeep. He cuffed him to the roll bar and then handed me my stun gun and pepper spray.

"Thanks Diesel. What brings you to my neck of the woods." I didn't mean to sound pissy but I kind of did. I hadn't heard from Diesel in five months. Five months of not knowing if his crazy job had gotten him killed or hurt or whatever. And then he just pops back into my life. Probably he needed my help. Hmph. Well too bad.

"Hey I _just_ helped you. If I hadn't shown up you would still be sitting on chicken neck over there. You were worried about me?"

"No. Okay a little. But more mad. You only ever show up and make things all crazy and then you leave."

Diesel smirked, "I came to visit…but I can leave if you don't want me hanging around."

"You came to visit? No crazy unmentionable stuff?"

"Nope, I'm on vacation." Wow Diesel got vacation? Maybe he got fired. "I did not get fired! Cripes. I needed to use my vacation time and I thought I would come and keep you company." Diesel gave me grin that made my lady parts wake up.

Joe and I had been in on 'off again' phase for a while now and Ranger was running missions in some other country. He'd been gone for over two months. I talked to him every few days but it was strange not having him around. Plus I hadn't had sex for three months now. I was starting to get squirmy. I'd tried giving myself a helping hand but it just wasn't the same. I was pretty close to giving Joe a booty call at this point.

Diesel was giving me a grin with dimples now. Hooboy. Diesel was a very bad I idea. I couldn't sleep with Diesel. No matter how much my lady parts wanted me to.

I hopped in my jeep and Diesel angled himself into the passenger seat. Ricci was in the backseat looking like he wished Diesel would walk.

We dropped Ricci off at the station and I got my body receipt. We went to the office so I could get paid.

Connie and Lula stared at Diesel; it'd been a while since they saw someone as sexy as Ranger. Connie gave me my money and Diesel and I left.

"Where are you staying?" He gave me another heart stopping grin and I sighed. I couldn't lock him out, he could open any lock.

"Actually I usually just pop in. And don't be too mad at me. I checked on you a few times."

"You checked on me?" I was surprised. That was strangely caring.

"Yeah it was great. I tuned into you one time and popped in while you were showering. You were all soapy and running your hands over your bre-", He stopped when I slapped his arm.

"Diesel!" I couldn't figure out if he was serious or not. I was scared to know. At least he hadn't seen me with the shower massager.

"Christ I missed the shower massager? What do you do with the shower massager? Tell me. In detail."

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**So, hit or miss so far? Review Review if you want more!**

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	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2! Thanks for the reviews, I'm glad the first chapter was enjoyable! More below! Reviews please!! **

**I don't own em, I just dream about Diesel.**

**Rangers gurl4eva:** I'm thinking no one would mind a Diesel booty call.

**JerseySue:** You want another vacation? You get another vacation. No surfing this time though. Maybe later! :)

**Team Switzerland - Team Seth:** I think Steph and Diesel just have such a great chemistry together! It's been fun to write in Opp Tastykake, hopefully I can get the same dynamic in this story. I'm glad to help with your quote of the week! Lol. No fighting. I actually like Morelli but I just can't seem to root for him like I do with Ranger and Diesel.

**Mary Lyon:** I'm not sure how I'm going to top that but I'll try. Anything for another rotflmbo!

**BellaBear:** No worries! It's still very near and dear to my heart.

**DayDreaminDeb:** I want powers too!

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We were half way to my apartment when my cell phone rang. Diesel grabbed it off the dash and answered it before I could.

"Stephanie Plum's phone. This is Diesel, who are you? Oh. Here she is." Diesel handed me the phone.

"Hello?"

"Stephanie we have a big bond that just came in. We know where the guy is but he's not in-state and Ranger's offline. You want him?"

"Where and how much?" I was so not chasing some skip through Kansas for $500.

"Seattle, twenty big ones." I almost choked on my own tongue.

"Twenty thousand for one skip? What's the catch?"

"He's cagey, hard to catch. Frankly I don't think you can do it but you're my only option." Ah.

"Yeah I'll do it. I'm coming by the office to get travel money now. You have cash? A last minute ticket is gonna be expensive."

"Yeah yeah." And Vinnie hung up.

I looked over to Diesel as I executed a highly illegal u-turn. "You wanna go to Seattle?"

"I love Seattle. You know we can just pop there and save your boss the money."

"Or we could take the money, pop there and have some fun while trying to find the skip."

"You're naughty. I like it." Diesel smiled deeply enough to show me his dimples. Good lord.

When we got to the office I took the envelope that Connie gave me and looked inside. Not bad. She winked at me. I grabbed the skip file without really looking at it. We drove back to my apartment and I noticed Diesel's duffle bag on my bed when we went in. I resisted the urge to paw through it. I packed a small duffle of my own and gave Rex a treat. Lula had said she would come over and take care of him for me.

"Do not let go of my hand." Diesel grabbed me and I felt like I was in two places at once. "Steph, breathe."

I gulped in some air and tightened my hand around Diesel's. And then it was done. We were in a bathroom. We walked out and we were in a rental car place. Wow good idea.

"I think ahead." Diesel walked up to the girl at the counter. She looked like she might ask Diesel to do her then and there on the counter. She seemed a little young for him. Diesel elbowed me lightly and gave me a smirk.

"Hey, we need a car." Diesel's voice was low and sexy, a hint more surfer boy than usual. He was flirting. Did he have to flirt in front of me? Cripes. I was jealous.

"What kind of car did you and your wife want?" She gave me a dirty look.

"Oh I'm not married. This is my sister."

"Oh! Great well we have lots of great cars. How about a Ranger Rover? I can let you have it for a really good price."

"That would be great. Could you recommend a good hotel for us too?"

"Of course. The Westin is just a few blocks over. It's supposed to be very nice. I also know of some great restaurants in the area…"

"Well why don't you give me your number so we can discuss those?" Diesel was leaning on the counter now looking entirely too sexy for his own good. The girl behind the counter scribbled down her name and number and then finished up with the paperwork for our car rental.

I stalked outside and Diesel followed me. He hopped in driver's seat and threw his wallet on the dash. I grabbed it and looked at his ID. "Is this fake?"

"No it's the real one."

"You're only twenty five?"

"Yeah. How old did you think I was?"

"I don't know, closer to my age I guess." Maybe I was silly to be jealous of that girl. Maybe Diesel was too young for me.

"A) I was only flirting to get a good car. B) I am not that much younger than you Steph, a couple years is really no difference at all. C) I really really like that you were jealous. You have no idea how much I like it."

Wait was Diesel flirting with me? I looked at him and he was giving me a smile that screamed sex appeal. We got to the hotel and Diesel grabbed both of our bags. The lady at the front desk was in her 40's and she was staring at Diesel like he was something to eat. Diesel did his flirting thing again and got us a great rate on a room. One room with one king bed.

I wasn't sure if I should be worrying about that or not. I looked at Diesel's huge grin and decided on some payback. I started thinking about the shower massager as we were walking to our room and Diesel forgot to turn the corner and walked smack into the wall.

I was cracking up and Diesel was giving me a dirty smile. "I saw that coming but it was so worth it. You know I could give you better results than the shower massager." It sent a zing to my doodah.

I was seriously considering pushing the stop button in the elevator but I was afraid they had cameras.

"I can scramble those…" Hooboy.

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Still good?**


	3. Chapter 3

**New chapter. Stayed up late to finish it. Must sleep. Review if you want more.**

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My phone rang before I could push the stop button and I sighed and flipped it open. "Lo?"

"Babe. Care to explain why I just landed in New Jersey to a frantic Tank who insists that within twenty seconds you went from being at your apartment to being in Seattle?"

"I'm safe. I'm with Diesel."

"Babe." Ranger saying babe is like having a whole conversation with a normal person.

"Will I see you when I get back?"

Ranger sighed. "I don't know. Hopefully. Be safe." The line went dead.

The elevator opened and Diesel motioned for me to get out. Ranger and Joe never let me get out first. There could be a psycho killer waiting for me after all. I have a feeling Diesel would sense a psycho killer though.

"Yeah I wouldn't let you get our first if there was a psycho killer."

I'd always though Ranger had ESP, but Diesel took ESP to whole new level. I'm pretty sure Diesel can hear every thought I've ever had.

Diesel chuckled and slid the key into the lock on our door. The room was really nice and I poked around it a little. It was about 3 pm and Diesel was looking through the hotel book guide thingie.

"You wanna have dinner at the Space Needle?" He asked.

"Oh that would be awesome!" I was bouncy all the sudden.

He made us a reservation for six.

I went to take a shower and popped my head out when I heard Diesel rummaging around. "Hey I locked the door for a reason." I went back to shampooing my hair.

"Hmm. Seems kinda stupid when you know I can unlock and pop. What's the point?" I popped my head back out and gave Diesel an incredulous look.

"I was hoping it was be a sign to you that I wanted to be alone." I shut the curtain all the way again.

"Is there a shower massager in there with you?" Diesel pulled the curtain over and I yelped.

"Diesel! What are you doing, I'm in the shower!"

"I know that's why I'm looking. It's the highlight of my day"

I sighed and let Diesel watch me shower. I felt sad for Diesel if I was the highlight of his day.

Diesel chuckled and stepped into the shower with me. When did Diesel get naked? Good god why had I never seen Diesel naked before?

I stopped showering and just started staring at Diesel while he showered. It was the best shower I'd ever taken. Diesel got out of the shower and I finished washing my hair and then got out too. I dried my hair, swiped on a bunch of mascara and got dressed.

Diesel and I drove to the Needle and we got seated by the window. The restaurant rotated so eventually you saw the whole city. It was a gorgeous city, especially at night. So far Washington seems beautiful.

I spent the majority of our dinner thinking of all the very dirty things I wanted to do to Diesel. He was so distracted that he didn't realize when he spilled water on himself. I ran a bare foot up and down his leg.

I wasn't just teasing, I wanted Diesel bad. I'd always tried to keep my distance because frankly Diesel was more mystery man than Ranger. Diesel seemed like a bad idea usually. Right now Diesel seemed like a great idea. Diesel inside of me seemed like an amazing idea.

I was going to fuck Diesel senseless tonight. I let him see everything I was thinking; he gave me a huge grin and leaned back in his chair. His cocky smile was wiped off his face when his chair fell backwards and a waiter tripped and spilt a sundae on his head.


	4. Chapter 4

**Finallly! Everyone clap! BTW...NEW STORY!!! It's called Someday, Somewhere. Go check it out pls!

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Diesel and I rode the elevator down and walked to our rental car. I stopped him before he could get in.

"Diesel you're covered in chocolate." I unbuttoned his shirt and slid it off of him. "You don't want to get it on the seats." My phone chirped. I was tempted not look at the text but I couldn't help it.

**Babe, Vinnie said he thought you might have trouble with the skip, need help?**

Crap. Ranger. Now I had a problem. I was fine with sleeping with Diesel until I thought about Ranger. I loved Ranger. And Ranger loved me. But he wasn't a relationship type of person. But then neither was Diesel.

Diesel sighed and slid himself into our car. I stood outside for a second, fidgeting with my phone. I sent Ranger back a short reply.

_**I think we have it covered. **_

His reply was even shorter.

**Be safe.**

I slid myself into the car next to Diesel and glances at him nervously. I didn't want him to be mad at me. I didn't want to be a one night stand.

"I'm not mad and you would be a vacation fling, not a one night stand." Diesel's grin was huge and I couldn't help but answer it with one of my own. Diesel admitting that didn't help my problem any.

"Steph you are thinking about this too hard. I like you, you're a good friend to me but I'm not going to push you into a pseudo-relationship. I'm not around a lot and I'm off the grid most of the time. I don't know if you would be okay with that kind of relationship so I'm just going to leave it up to you."

I ran through the possible outcomes in my head. I was done with Joe so that narrowed down my options.

I could sleep with Diesel. No relationship. Just casual sex. Probably in the end this wouldn't work out.

I could sleep with Diesel and we could try to have a semblance of a relationship. Maybe we could stay friends if it didn't work out.

I could forget about my urges to ride Diesel and try to work things out with Ranger. It could work out. Maybe.

I could forget about my urges to ride Diesel and have things not work out with Ranger. And never have sex again. Eak.

Okay so option four wasn't really a good option. I needed sex. Diesel snickered.

"I like option two myself. It seems to point toward more frequent sex." Diesel's grin made my doodah hot.

Yeah more frequent sex and more disappointment for me. The truth was I wanted to get married and have a family. Maybe not now, but at some point. And Diesel didn't want to fit into that equation. So what was the point?

I had a mental picture of Diesel in between my thighs while I thrashed on the bed screaming and ripping the sheets. Hoooo Boy. Diesel made a good point. Orgasms would be the point. I bet Diesel could give me a great orgasm. Or several great orgasms.

"I could give you more than several. I would ruin you for all men." Diesel gave me a look that screamed pure sex and a small moan escaped me before I could stop it. Maybe trying idea two wasn't such a bad thing.

"So basically we should be friends with benefits?" I asked Diesel with a grin.

"Yeah, except we'd stay friends even if the benefits stopped." I saw no down side to this and grinned at Diesel.

We were walking across the hotel lobby when a bellboy with his hands full ran into me. We got untangled and I looked up and into my skips eyes.

"AH! Diesel! That's him! It's the skip!" The guy tried to run but Diesel grabbed him. I dug in my bag and cuffed him. We caught a skip! Without really trying. It was a miracle. It was a sign. I was supposed to sleep with Diesel!

There were a lot of things in life that I took for granted but catching a skip wasn't one of them. I was ecstatic. We hauled him down to the Seattle PD so they could hold him for the night. We'd have to take him back to Jersey tomorrow. I called the airlines and got three tickets for tomorrow afternoon.

We got back to the room and I walked over to the window and looked out the view. I felt Diesel walk up behind me. My back stiffened but his hands found my shoulder and oh god that felt good. He kneaded my shoulders gently and I leaned back into him. Small noises of contentment were coming out of my mouth and I could sense Diesel's grin. His hands turned me around and I found myself facing him. The look in his eyes was dangerous.

Diesels lips felt like silk when they finally crashed down on mine. His arms were wrapped around my waist keeping my body flush again his. His tongue ran over my lips and I granted him entrance with a moan. My hands found his hair and I tugged on it gently. His left hand came up under my shirt and he cupped my breast, weighing it in his palm. His thumb ran over my already pebbled nipple. Diesel managed to get my shirt off of me and then my ass was on the window sill. The glass felt cool on my back and I shivered slightly.

I watched Diesel as he stepped back and stripped off his own shirt. His muscles were toned and tanned. I ran a finger over his abs and grinned. Rock hard. I looked a little further south and realized that his abs weren't the only thing that was hard. I licked my lips and grinned.

"Christ Steph that look alone could get me hard." He stepped in between my legs and pressed his lips to my neck. He kissed down to my collar bone and then down to the swell of my breast. My back was still pressed against the window but I realized my bra hook was no longer digging into my skin. I looked down. No bra. Huh. "Magic." Diesel said. And then his mouth covered one of my nipples and I forgot how to think for a second. His tongue flicked over it a few times and something tightened low inside of my body.

Diesel pushed me harder against the glass and bit my nipple gently. I moaned and Diesel shushed me. "Not so loud, someone will complain." His hands were busy fumbling with the buttons on my jeans. He finally gave a hard yank and they came open. He had the jeans and my underwear off me in a second flat. He was on his knees in between my legs now. He slipped my legs over his shoulders and…oh my god was he going to…oh god, yes he was. I grabbed onto the window sill for support. Diesels breath was hot on me as he kissed and licked my thighs. I squirmed trying to make him get to the good part but he wasn't giving me that much satisfaction yet. He started making his way inward, licking and nibbling at my folds before finally licking my slit in one long slow motion. His tongue swirled around my clit and then he sucked it into his mouth. My hips jerked and I grabbed his hair. My moans were getting louder and louder as he continued to lick and suck me. He started flicking my clit repeatedly with his tongue and I was very close to coming. He took his hand from holding my legs open and placed it between my legs. He thrust three fingers into me and pushed me over the edge with a few 'come here' motions against my g-spot. My back slammed against the window and I screamed his name as my pussy clenched around his fingers. I felt cum start to dribble from between my legs and he licked me until I was clean, sending little mini orgasms through my body.

It wasn't nowhere near enough. I needed him inside of me, now. Diesel chuckled and stood up. "I want you to take some time to think about this, about me. Make sure it's what you really want. We'll reevaluate in a day or two." I thought he was joking but the look on his face made me realize he was serious.

"You don't want to have sex with me?" I asked. I was a little…pissed…hurt…something. I mean Diesel was always flirting with me and now suddenly he didn't want to have sex? "Why did you just do that then huh? Just to fuck with my feelings?"

"No I did that as an enticement. I wouldn't mess with your feelings Steph. I really do want to have sex with you. And I really do want you to think about it carefully before you make any decisions. I'm not willing to lose our friendship over this. So it needs to be what you want. For sure. No regrets. Now put on your PJ's and get some sleep.

I suppose that made sense in a way. But god I wanted him. He stripped off his pants and got into the bed clad only in his boxers. I climbed in naked and he raised an eyebrow at me. "Enticement." I said.

"Smart ass." My answer was to press myself against him, draping a leg over his thigh. "Christ, you're dripping wet."

"Do you want me to move?"

"No." I idly ran my fingers up and down his abs until I fell asleep.

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**I'd love some opinions!!!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Enjoy!!!

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I looked at the clock when I woke up and then sat up straight. Crap. Our flight left at two and it was eleven now. I looked at Diesel, he was still deep asleep. I grabbed his arm and shook him gently. "Diesel? Wake up!" Nothing. I was going to have to play hardball. I pulled down the sheets and crawled on top of him. He was hard and it made me giggle. It also made me instantly wet. I moved so I was pressed against him and then leaned over and bit his neck gently.

"Mmm I'm guessing this means you thought things over?" Diesel asked. "_No it means we're late and you wouldn't wake up."_

"Ah fuck now that's just mean Steph." Diesel said.

"_I'll make it up to you." _I stood up and walked to the shower, _"You coming? We don't have time to take separate ones." _I turned back toward the shower and Diesel was already turning the water on.

"You're getting way better at this mind reading business." I said as stepped in the shower.

"It gets easier the more I'm around you." Diesel reached around me for the shampoo and I ended up with him pressed hard against my belly. I licked my lips. God we' d have to be fast.

"I can be fast." Diesel set the shampoo back down and smashed his lips to mine. His right hand found its way in between my legs and he dipped a finger in me. He was big but I was wet enough. He picked me up and I wrapped my legs around him. He slammed my back against the hard slate and shoved himself inside of me. One plus of Diesel reading my mind is that we didn't have to mess around. He knew I wanted it rough and he gave it to me obligingly. He thrust into me again and again, making my back hit the wall. His mouth found my neck and I held on to his shoulders for support. My whole body was thrumming with energy and everything he did to my neck literally went straight to my doodah. He sucked and I felt like my clit was being sucked. It was fucking amazing. He licked and sucked at my neck until I was shaking. Finally, he bit gently and I went over the edge. I could feel my pussy convulsing around his dick as I came. He pushed himself into me hard a few more times and then filled me. I was shaking so hard that I couldn't stand and when Diesel set me down my knees gave out. Diesel kept an arm around me for a minute until I was able to calm down.

"That was…" Diesel started.

"Amazing?" I finished.

"Steph that was best sex I've ever had. That energy thing? That's never happened before."

"Jeez, I suddenly feel like I won the lottery. Or went to the DMV and didn't have to wait in line." I said. Diesel laughed and squirted some shampoo on my head. I rubbed it in and looked at Diesel. "I never told you I like your new hair cut. It's very Chad Michael Murray."

"Thanks. He grabbed the body wash and lathered me up, spending far too long on my breasts. He dunked me under the water and then washed himself while I was conditioning. We finished up quickly and I put on a long tunic shirt and some capri length leggings for the plane ride home. We hurried to the police station and grabbed our skip who wouldn't say a single word. We were in the security when I realized I still has my gun. I turned to Diesel but didn't have to say a word. He pulled me into a deep kiss, laying his hand on the small of my back where I'd stuck the gun earlier. The weight and pressure disappeared.

"Thanks." I said. Diesel grinned. The skip was watching us with wide eyes. We got through security and onto the plane with no problem. I was tense as we took off. Diesel grabbed my hand and I relaxed a little. The ride was long and I couldn't fall asleep. We finally landed and then I realized we didn't have a ride. I called Ranger.

"Babe."

"Hey, I'm at the airport with a skip and I just realized I'm stuck here."

"Meet me at Baggage." Ranger hung up without saying goodbye. I was used to it by now.

We walked to a Starbucks near baggage and Diesel ordered us Iced Carmel Macchiatos. We were waiting patiently when Ranger pulled up to the curb. Diesel climbed in the back with the skip so I hopped in up front with Ranger.

"I'm proud of you babe, your first cross country skip." He gave me what amounted to a Ranger smile. We stopped at the police station and dropped off the skip and then Ranger drove us to the office to give Connie the body receipt and get my check. Rent for almost two years. We got back into the SUV and Ranger looked at Diesel, "Where are you staying man? I'll drop you off."

"I'm with Steph." Neither of us missed the meaning behind his words. Ranger gave me a sharp glance and tried to use his ESP on me.

"Don't Ranger." He gritted his teeth and turned towards my apartment. He stopped at the doors and Diesel climbed out.

"I'll be upstairs. He left and I sat for a few minutes with Ranger not speaking.

"Is it really any worse than Morelli?" I finally asked.

Ranger sighed, "No I guess not. I love you babe."

"Love you too Ranger." I got out of the car and walked towards the building.

Diesel was rifling through the fridge when I walked in. "You have no food."

I raised an eyebrow, "Well let's go to dinner."

"Are you asking me out on a date?" Diesel said with a grin. He crossed his arms and leaned against the counter.

I thought for a second and nodded, "Guess I am, what's your answer?"

"I say we go have some fun." Diesel winked at me and gave me a look that sent a jolt straight to my doodah.

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**Tell me what you think!!!**

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	6. Chapter 6

**And now we continue with the adventures of Stephanie and Diesel!**

**Mary Lyon: HAHAHA! That made my day. Seriously. **

**Sasha: Yup! And no one died!**

**Sue: Be a good girl. No stealing Diesel. He's chained to my bed right now. As he should be. **

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We both needed showers and new clothes before we went anywhere. I hopped into the shower first and sighed as I used my stolen Bulgari shower gel. I wasn't going to even contemplate my complicated relationship with Ranger right now. Not that I thought a relationship with Diesel would be any less complicated.

I finished the shower and dried off, switching with Diesel. "Wear something sexy." Diesel's statement scared me a little. I didn't know if I wanted to go somewhere that I needed to dress 'sexy' for. I did as I was told though; slipping on some dark rinse skinny jeans and pulling on black knee high stiletto boots. I put on a dark purple tunic that had a low plunging crystal neckline over a VS pushup bra.

Diesel stepped out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and we looked each other up and down. He grinned and ran a hand through his hair, making it stand up in spikes. I licked my lips and Diesel his grin widened to include those damn dimples. I was beginning to wish I had used the shower massager while I was in there.

I went into the bathroom and put some gunk in my hair and blasted it with the dryer and a large round brush until it screamed sex bomb and then layered on some mascara and lip gloss. "Holy hell Steph, you look _good._"

I grinned at Diesel and grabbed my handbag, checking to make sure I had my gun, stun gun, cuffs and mace. "Steph we're going on a date not a take down."

"I like to be prepared." I said with a shrug. "Look, my life is a little hectic, but I haven't been kidnapped in a while and I'd like to keep up the trend."

Diesel looked like he might start laughing. "You think I'd let you get kidnapped?"

"Last time you were here I got kidnapped by the same guy twice!" I reminded him.

"Oh yeah. But that's cause I left, I don't plan on leaving you alone tonight," he said with a grin.

"That's okay. Just in case. Where are we going?" I asked. I watched as Diesel pulled on some tight jeans, minus underwear and then shrugged into a stripped button down Abercrombie shirt that was remarkably unwrinkled despite having been shoved in his bag. He put on some shoes and grabbed his leather jacket.

"We're going to my favorite place," he said with a grin.

I raised an eyebrow, "your favorite place is in Jersey?"

"Not even a little. Hold on tight." Diesel grabbed my hand and I forgot to close my eyes. Everything went black and I felt the same sensation of being two places at once and then we were suddenly in a hotel room.

"I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to just pop into hotel rooms." I told Diesel and went to look out the window. I smiled, we were in Vegas.

"I came and checked us in while you were in the shower. We're in the Mandalay Bay. Let's go gamble."

"That's your idea of a hot date? Gambling?"

"I'll give you money."

"Let's go!" I grabbed Diesels hand and hauled him out of the room. He laughed and put his arm around my shoulder as we walked to the elevator.

"I thought you couldn't gamble anymore because of your special skills?" I asked.

"I didn't gamble much here, not enough to get noticed, and it's been a long time since I was here anyway." The elevator doors opened and I knew the look on my face would probably scare anyone who looked at me. I was a kid in a candy store.

"Can we play 21?" I asked Diesel.

He steered me in a different direction from the one I'd been going in, "Yep. Have you ever played before?"

"Nope." Diesel rolled his eyes and found us a table. Diesel had me sit down and then handed the dealer an impressive stack of bills. We got a bunch of chips back and Diesel organized them in front of me. He taught be how to play and then joined the game himself. After a few hands Diesel and the dealer were laughing and Diesel seemed to be winning big while I was just managing to keep afloat. "Hon maybe we should go play the slot machines?"

"Why? I'm not doing that bad," I said defensively.

"Steph each one of those chips you just lost was $100."

"Eughhh" I said. Diesel gave me a 'what the fuck' look and cashed in his chips.

"It's okay darlin', it was only a few thousand. I bet you'll do better on the slots." We found some cool looking machines and sat down. Mine was some game bases on milking cows. Diesel fed the machine a few hundreds and I pushed max bet. Diesel was right, I was better at the slot machines. I mindlessly pushed the bet button until Diesel nudged me. "I'm back."

I looked up, "You were gone?"

Diesel looked bewildered, "Yeah I told you twenty minutes ago I was going to go make us a reservation for dinner." He paused and looked at me, "you seriously didn't realize I was gone?"

"Nope. Where are we going for dinner?"

"Nobu at the Hard Rock."

"Oooh that's one of the places famous people eat in Hollywood!"

"I just wanted sushi," Diesel said with a grin. I pushed the payout button and got my ticket.

"Hey how much did you put in here?"

"$200."

"Wow, I won $455!" I did a happy dance and Diesel grinned bigger, showing me the sexy dimples. I imagined Diesel was just the dimples on.

"We can skip dinner."

"I'm hungry, let's go." Diesel led the way because, let's face it, I had no idea where I was or how to even get out of the casino. We walked down the strip and I oohed and aahed. We got to the restaurant and we were seated right away in a nice private corner. Diesel sat on the same side as me and then ordered us a bottle of champagne. I looked at the drink list and realized the cheapest bottle was $95. Holy shit.

"It's a date Steph just have fun, let me worry about the money."

"Alright." I started looking through the menu and chewing on my lip. It wasn't exactly my type of food. I didn't do raw fish.

"Why don't you let me order? I promise you'll like what I get." I eyed Diesel wearily but nodded. If I hated it we could always get McDonalds on the way back. "That's the spirit Steph!" Our waitress brought us our champagne and Diesel ordered. In Japanese.

She left and I looked at Diesel, "you speak Japanese?"

He put his arm around my shoulder and handed me a glass of champagne, "enough to order, not much more."

I took a sip of the champagne and almost moaned, it was delicious. "Well you know how to order champagne, I'll give you that."

"Steph I know how to do a lot of things." He voice was deep and low and it lacked his usual surfer boy inflection. I shivered and leaned into him.

"How long are you going to be here for Diesel?" I asked and took another sip of champagne.

Diesel refilled my glass. "A week of vacation but I was thinking of moving my home base to Trenton."

"Why? Where are you 'based' from now?"

"Colorado and why not? It's as good a place as any. I could see you more," he said nonchalantly.

I let a small smile escape, "that would be nice."

"Well I wouldn't want you to have to go to Ranger for a booty call."

"So you don't want me to see Ranger?" I wasn't sure what I wanted the answer to be. If he said he didn't care then…well then he didn't care. If he did care then I had no idea what that meant either.

"It's not really any of my business I guess." He drank some more champagne and asked the waitress for another bottle when she brought our salads.

I bit my lip, I wanted to figure out what Diesel wanted us to be, but I didn't want to press him.

"Right now? I want to be friends with benefits, with an option of more," Diesel said. I didn't know what to say to that. Friends with benefits was tricky territory. "It's not that tricky. We can just do what we want to, not worry about labels." Well when he put it that way it didn't sound as tricky.

I finished my salad and drank another glass of champagne. We went through another bottle before our meal got to the table. I grinned at Diesel as the waitress sat down my plate, it was a huge steak.

"Kobe beef. Best you'll ever eat."

I took a bite and moaned. "Oh god Diesel."

"Right words, wrong context. We'll fix that later," Diesel said and wiggled his eyebrows at me. Cripes I was suddenly wet.

I shook my head to clear it and ate my steak. I was starting to feel really nice and warm from the champagne. "Hey! We should go swimming and then gamble some more," I suggested.

"Or we could go up to the room and order dessert." His voice was back to the low husky tone.

"Okay. That sounds good too." I started to get up but Diesel pulled me down.

"Gotta pay first chicka." The waitress finally brought us the bill and Diesel slipped several hundred-dollar bills into the folder and gave it back to her. We slide out of the booth and Diesel had to hold me up.

"Oops. I think you got me drunk Diesel." Diesel and I together was seeming like a better idea with every step I took.

"How are you such a lightweight?" He asked as he walked me out.

"I dunno. It's a gift. Oh look at that cute wedding chapel!"

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**Whooo! I wonder what is going to happen next...Any ideas? ;) Review pls!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Another day, another chapter. Enjoy.

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**

I woke up the next morning with a killer hangover and a very naked man half sprawled on top of me. I poked Diesel but he didn't wake up, "Diesel?"

"Mmm? What?"

"I can't breathe," I said. Diesel groaned and rolled off of me. I was naked too. "Did we have sex?"

"That doesn't make me feel good about my skills. I dunno though. I remember coming back to the room and breaking into the minibar. Fuck. You have any aspirin?"

"Shouldn't you be immune to alcohol?" I asked and tried to sit up, it didn't work.

"Fuck even I'm not immune to 20 little bottles of alcohol." He said.

I finally succeeded in sitting up and looked at the table. "And a half dozen more bottles of champagne."

"No wonder I can't remember anything past dessert," Diesel said with a grin.

"Hell I don't even remember dessert," I said and watched Diesel sit up. His back was completely covered in deep scratches. Crap did I do that?

"They hurt. You have friggin talons?" He turned to look at me and smiled even bigger, "Yeah we either had sex or got into a fight," he said as he looked me over.

I looked down and gasped, "Are those bite marks?" Diesel nodded. My thighs had clear bruises in the shape of Diesel's hands. Cripes what had we done?

"Not sure, but it must've been good for you considering these scratches." Diesel said and I nodded with a silly grin. My cell phone rang. I ignored it and went to the bathroom. We both showered and got dressed. I checked my voicemails while Diesel called to check us out.

"**Babe. Reminding you that you're supposed to do searches for me tomorrow." **Oops. I'd forgotten. I was late.

The next one was from Ranger too. **"Babe." **

And the next. **"We need to talk." **Oh crap, what had I done?

"**You can't avoid me Stephanie. Get your ass back to Trenton." **What the fuck? Avoid him? I wasn't avoiding Ranger. What was going on?

"He sounds pissed." Diesel said.

"Yeah, I've got no idea why though," I said.

"Don't look at me. You ready to go back to reality?"

"I suppose so. I'm late for work after all," I said with a grin. Diesel grabbed my hand and this time I remembered to close my eyes. I found a RangeMan uniform and changed. It was 11am. I was about three hours late. I looked at Diesel, "Can you pop me into the garage?" He grabbed my hand and I was suddenly in the RangeMan garage.

"Thanks." I stood on my tippy toes and pressed a kiss to his lips and then got on the elevator and rode up to the 5th floor. I walked to control and took a look at the monitors. Ranger was in the gym beating the shit out of Hector.

"I wouldn't go down there bomber. Boss man has been in a very bad mood since he got the Vegas report this morning." Hal said.

"WHAT?! He was spying on me?" I was pissed.

"No, Tank and Lester were picking up a skip, you know Ranger can't go to Vegas because of some prior issues…Well Lester called at about three am. We don't know what Lester told him but it pissed him off. Apparently it was something about you? Were you in Vegas Bomber?"

"Shit. Yes. I don't know what he's pissed about though."

"I dunno but it must be bad, he put his fist through his bedroom window." Cripes. I thanked Hal for the warning and headed to gym. Ranger might be pissed at me but there was really no reason not to face the problem head on.

I walked into the gym and Ranger threw a quick glance my direction. Ranger caught Hector with an uppercut to his jaw and Hectors head snapped back.

"You got something you need to tell me Stephanie?" He shouted in my direction before executing a round house kick at Hectors midsection.

I walked over to Hector and nodded at him to get out while he could. Ranger gave him a death glare and he left as quickly as his battered body would let him. "What's going on Ranger?"

"You wanna get in some practice?"

"Not right now. Let me see your hands," I said. Ranger shook his head and walked towards the locker room. I followed him and watched as he stripped and went to stand in the shower. I followed him into the shower, getting soaked by the water and grabbed his right hand. It was cut in several places and his knuckles were raw. I left the shower and grabbed the first aid. Ranger came out in a towel, his face blank and brushed by me. "Sit down."

He didn't sit, he pulled on some black cargos and a tight black t-shirt, added socks and laced on his CAT boots. "Ranger? Why are you so mad at me?"

"Did you have fun in Vegas Stephanie?"

"Yeah, as a matter a fact I did. I don't see how it's any of your business or why you're so pissed though."

Ranger shook his head and started to get up. I pushed him back down. His face hardened. I straddled the bench beside him and opened up the first aid kit to take care of his hands. I cleaned the cuts and scrapes, put antibiotic ointment on them and bandaged the ones that needed it. A few were bad enough for stitches but I knew he'd never go for it. I got up to leave.

"I don't know what I did Ranger. When you want to talk about it, come find me."

I walked out of the locker room and looked back once. Ranger's face was no longer blank. It was sad. I almost went back but I stopped myself. Obviously he had some shit to work out. I slammed the gym door behind me and got on the elevator. I didn't have a car but I figured I'd walk a little ways and call Diesel to come get me. I was about a mile away from Hayward when I heard the car pull up behind me. I figured it was Ranger and I didn't turn around.

"Cupcake? You need a ride or were you just out for your daily soaking wet stroll?" I turned to see Joe and shook my head with a smile. I hopped into the passenger side of his SUV.

"Oh well you know how serious I take my exercise. What's up Joe? How have you been?" Joe and I hadn't been together for a while now, but we'd parted amicably. There would always be a part of me that cared for Joe.

"Just out doing some errands. You want to be dropped off at your apartment?"

"Yeah that would be great." I said and looked out my window.

"You want to tell me why your soaking wet and without a car? Trouble with a skip perhaps?"

"No. Actually I got into a fight with Ranger. I followed him into the shower to get him to talk to me. He still wouldn't talk though," I said.

I could tell Joe was either trying not to laugh or trying not to swear. "You know cupcake, I gotta say that I miss you, but I'm glad Ranger is the one going through a bottle of Maalox a day now."

"I'm not with Ranger," I said to Joe as we pulled into my parking lot.

"Oh, okay. Hey do you still have my Rocky DVD's?"

"Oh shit. Yeah, sorry. Wanna come up and get them?"

"Yeah." We got out of the SUV and rode the elevator up with Mrs. Bestler. I walked in the apartment.

"Hey Steph, we need food. I'm starving after last night. What are you doing back already?" Diesel yelled. I sense Joe stiffen a little beside me.

"We have company Diesel." Diesel walked out of the kitchen and eyed Joe.

"I thought you dumped the cop," he said.

"I'm just here to get some DVD's. Why are you here?"

"I'm on vacation." They eyed each other while I found the DVD's.

"Thanks for the ride Joe. We'll do pizza at Pino's soon?" And then I pushed him out the door.

"So what was up with Ranger?" Diesel asked and strolled back into the kitchen.

"I still have no idea. Apparently Tank and Lester were in Vegas picking up a skip and saw me. They reported back something that pissed off Ranger pretty badly."

"Maybe he heard about our all night sex session that neither of us can remember?" Diesel asked. I punched him on the arm. "Or maybe it has something to do with the gigantic rock on your finger…" he said with a wince. I looked down at my hand. Holy shit.

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**I need some opinions before I can keep going!!!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Happy reading everyone! Can't make everyone happpy, but hopefully this chapter wont piss too many people off.

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**

I looked up at Diesel, "We didn't…I mean were not…right?"

Diesel's eyes were wide, "I don't think so. I mean we'd remember that right?"

"Fuck." I picked up my phone and dialed Ranger.

"Yo."

"Please tell me I'm not married." There was silence on the other end of the line. "Ranger? What did they see? 'cuz I just realized I'm wearing a good sized diamond and now I can't breathe."

"Babe. You didn't know?"

"I don't remember anything after dessert and Diesel's memory cuts out after his 6th little bottle of tequila," I said. Cripes. We weren't married. We couldn't be married. I liked Diesel, hell I might love Diesel, but I didn't want to be married. Not right now. I was just getting used to the idea of friends with benefits. My brain wasn't fitting around married.

"Babe, the guys saw you coming out of a wedding chapel, looking like you were having a hell of a time. You need to call Las Vegas city hall and see if you have a marriage license on file. Call me when you have it figured out." The line went dead.

I looked at Diesel and sighed. I dialed zero to get an operator and got patched through to city hall.

"Hi, I uh need to see if I got married yesterday?"

"Names?"

"Stephanie Plum and Diesel…uh crap hold on." I looked at Diesel who grinned.

"Akeman."

"Is that German?" Diesel nodded.

"My dad is going to kill me. I married a Nazi." I shook my head and went back to the phone, "Diesel Akeman."

"Ok give me a minute and I'll look." A few minutes later she came back on the line, "I don't have anything on file. You're not married." Thank god.

"Thank you so much." I hung up and looked at Diesel.

"Am I that bad?" He asked with a grin.

"No, but my last husband screwed Joyce Barnhardt on my dining room table. Once bitten, twice shy."

"Ouch. You better call Ranger back."

"I suppose so. Hey, I wonder where we got the ring from?"

"I dunno but I bet my credit card company does." I sighed and started to take the ring off. "I doubt the store will take it back and I sure as hell don't have any use for it Steph. Plus if you keep it on we can go freak out your parents."

I laughed and dialed Ranger.

"Yo."

"Not married. Now you wanna tell me why you were being such an asshole?"

"Sorry Babe. I might've overreacted."

"Dunno why, you're love comes with a condom not a ring right?"

"Babe."

"Talk to you later Ranger." I hung up and waited for the phone to ring again. It did. I didn't answer it. Ranger hated when I hung up on him.

Diesel was looking at me with a raised eyebrow, "I thought you didn't want a ring?"

"I don't, but if I did I wouldn't want Ranger to get all pissy that I married someone else."

"Ah. So I have a question."

"I have an answer."

"I'm looking at condos today, you want to come?"

"Sure. I have some skips I need to pick up, you want to help?"

"Always."

We looked at several condos that I would've given (most) anything to be able to afford. Diesel picked my favorite, a 1500 square foot condo that had two master bedroom suites and an extra half bath. I didn't know why he needed all that space but it wasn't my money so I kept my mouth shut and watched as he signed the lease which was three times what I paid.

Diesel was in a cheerful mood as we hopped into my jeep to catch my first skip.

"Okay, we have Lenny Gerbowitz. Cripes. He's was booked for raping a woman and then beating her senseless with a gun. Ranger must have passed on this. Odd, he usually tries to take the maniacs from me."

"Maybe I should get him for you?" Diesel asked.

"Nope, but back up would be awesome."

Lenny lived in a rundown section of Trenton a few streets over from Stark. His house was painted a vivid flamingo pink. Yikes. We got out and I knocked on Lenny's door while Diesel headed around the back. Lenny opened the door and looked out me without saying anything.

"Hi, I'm Stephanie Plum, I'm here to escort you to make a new court date because you missed your first one." I said with a smile.

"Hows about you come in and play a game of hide the salami with me before we go." Lenny suggested. Ew. Ew. Ew.

"You know, I just don't have time for that now," I said and tried to slap the cuffs on his arm. Lenny picked up a huge ass knife off the counter and I started walking backwards, silently shouting for Diesel.

"Come on baby, play a little game with me." Lenny lunged at me with the knife and Diesel tackled him from the side. Diesel should have been a linebacker or something because Lenny and Diesel went down hard. Unfortunately Diesel went down hard on the 10 inch knife. I heard him grunt and then I was screaming. I had my stun gun out now and I juiced Lenny until his only movements were twitches and rolled Diesel over. I dug my phone out of my bag.

"Christ. Don't call 911."

"What?"

"Pull the knife out Steph."

"Oh no, uh huh, you'll die. The knife is holding in all your blood."

"Oh fuck." And then I watched Diesel pull all ten inches of the serrated knife from his abdomen. Diesel ripped open his shirt and pressed a hand to the cut while I stared in shock. Suddenly the gushing blood slowed and then stopped. Diesel used part of his shirt to wipe away the blood and winced. The cut was raw and seeping a little blood but that was it.

"What the…"

"I can heal Steph. It'll be fine by tonight, tender but fine. Let's get this jack ass to the station."

"You can heal?" I asked slowly.

"My being able to pop across the world doesn't bug you but that fact this won't kill me is wigging you out?"

"No, I'm very glad. It's just…wow…" Diesel grinned and took my cuffs from me and put them on Lenny. I gave Lenny an extra zap just because and Diesel helped me haul him to the jeep. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I could use some sleep though. Healing takes a lot of energy."

"Okay, let's drop him off and go home." We made it to the police station without any trouble; we were on the way home when my phone rang. I looked at the screen and sighed, it was Dylan, the manager for my building.

"Hello?"

"Hey Steph, it Dylan, we uh have a problem here. Mr. Markowitz is complaining that his ceiling is leaking." I lived right above Mr. Markowitz.

"Oh shit. Hey I'm pulling into the lot, I'll be up in ten seconds." I pulled to a stop and sprinted up the stairs, not wanting to wait for the elevator. Diesel was close behind me.

I got upstairs, Dylan and Mr. Markowitz were staring at the water that was trickling from under the door. Shit shit shit. I opened the door quickly and a wall of water washed over our feet. My apartment had been completely trashed. Everything was floating around in the 14 inches of water that was slowly trickling out of the door. Diesel went to turn off the bathtub and sink and the bathroom and I slogged into the kitchen. I screamed. Rex's cage was floating around, no Rex in sight.

"Diesel! Rex is missing! HELP!" I was worried, I was pretty sure hamsters couldn't swim. I looked around the kitchen frantically while the others looked in the living room and bedroom.

Diesel shouted from the bedroom, "I got him! He's fine!" I ran to the bedroom, Diesel was holding a wet Rex who looked scared. "He was floating in his food bowl." I grabbed Rex and stroked him, trying to find something warm to wrap him in, but everything was soaked. Who ever had done this had even taken my mattress off my bed frame so it would get wet.

I settled for wrapping Rex in the hem of my shirt. My cell phone rang and Diesel grabbed it and flipped it open.

"Hey. Oh, I didn't even notice it. Did it just go off? 'Cas we just got here but someone broke in, Steph's apartment was flooded, everything is ruined, even Rex's cage was flipped over. Yeah he's fine. See you soon." Diesel closed the phone and look at me, "Ranger. He wanted to know why the alarm was going off when his GPS showed you in the apartment. He figured you'd forgotten about it. Which apparently you did. He's on his way over. Did you know he has GPS on you?"

"Yeah, I did. It seemed prudent to just to go with it after the last kidnapping. How the fuck did this happen? Hector just installed a state of the art security system two weeks ago. Everything but cameras. No one should have been able to get in, and if they did they should have set off the motion or heat sensors and the system would have called RangeMan. The only person who can turn the system off completely without alerting RangeMan is Ranger. He has a remote. It even goes off when I put in the code. Then the control center looks to see if my GPS is here and turns it off."

"Wow. Why can Ranger turn it off?"

"He sneaks in a lot," I said and Diesel gave me a funny look. I looked around, as a loss as to what to do about the water. Dylan was on his cell phone, I was guessing to get someone over here to clean up. I started picking things up and realized that whoever had done this had not only made sure everything got wet, but had taken a knife to everything too. There was nothing that was useable.

Diesel took a step towards me and floor gave way, we fell through and landed in Mr. Markowitz living room.

"Shit, Steph you okay?"

I thought I was, a little dazed but fine. And completely wet now. I looked up as I heard Ranger's voice. His head suddenly appeared in the hole. "Babe? You guys okay?"

"Uh…I think so." Diesel helped me up and we went back upstairs. Hector was checking out the security system, Dylan was in the hall talking to the building owner and Ranger was looking around the apartment, stepping very carefully.

Ranger came up to me and motioned for me to follow him into the hall. I handed Rex to Diesel. We went down towards the stairs and Ranger stopped and checked me over carefully.

"Anything hurt?" I shook my head no and he stepped closer, "We need to talk babe."

"I don't see why," I said and started to walk away. Ranger grabbed my arm and pressed me against the wall with his body. He held my arms over my head and pressed his lips against mine hard. His tongue worked its way into my mouth. He didn't stop kissing me until I was breathing hard and I could feel him pressed firmly into my stomach.

"That's why," he said huskily into my ear. He straitened himself and took a step back. "You need a place to stay tonight?"

"No, we'll stay at a hotel." I didn't realize how it would sound until I said it and saw Ranger's eyes darken. He nodded and started to walk away. "Wait." I grabbed his arm and he turned back towards me. "Ranger…I…yeah we need to talk sometime soon."

I was completely conflicted. Diesel was great, he was fun and cute and the sex was awesome. But Ranger…god I'd loved Ranger for so long. But the love with a condom instead of a ring just didn't work for me when it came to Ranger. Probably because I loved him and the idea of a ring from him didn't completely freak me out.

Ranger nodded again and this time we both walked towards my apartment. Ranger and Diesel locked eyes and stared at each other.

"I'll save you the trouble of taking off your pants, you're both huge," I said.

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**Handled well? This was originally supposed to be Tart but I love me some Babe, so cast you're vote please. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Smutty goodness in this chapter...**

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The guys were still staring at each other so I stepped in between them. "Ranger do you have any idea how someone did this?" I asked, motioning around the room. He didn't get a chance to answer, the cops showed up and started looking around, talking to Ranger and Hector about the security system. No one could figure out how someone had gotten in and done this.

The owner of the building showed up and started yelling at me. "You're out! No more of this nonsense! None of your neighbors give me any trouble! Every time I turn around you're blowing up another car or setting fire or flooding something! I want you out! Now!"

Everyone was staring at me, I nodded and went over my options in my head. None of them were very appealing. I grabbed Rex back from Diesel and walked out of the apartment and went down to my car. Diesel and Ranger followed, Diesel hopped in the driver's seat and I turned to face Ranger.

"Babe…"

"It's fine Ranger. I'll be okay. We'll talk tomorrow okay? Right now I just want to go to sleep. Will you close up things here? Please?"

"Yeah. Of course. Night babe."

"Night Ranger." I got into my car and Diesel took off. He surprised me by stopping at a strip mall that held a PetSmart and Target. We went into PetSmart first and found Rex a smallish travel cage along with bedding and food. We got him set up in his new cage in the back of my SUV and went into Target. We had an hour before the store closed.

"Okay, what do we need survive the night in the condo?" Diesel asked. Oh, I'd forgotten about the condo.

"Grab a cart." We hit the clothes, buying underwear, a pair of jeans each and a few shirts. We got an Aerobed, sheets, pillows and a comforter. We grabbed toilet paper, shampoo and conditioner and body wash. We added toothbrushes, toothpaste and I grabbed some minimal makeup. Diesel grabbed us both deodorant and hair gel. We grabbed some snacks and drinks and checked out. Diesel paid for everything and waved off my suggestions of helping.

We got to the condo and I looked at Diesel, 'Uh…wasn't the lady supposed to give you the key tomorrow?"

"Yup." Diesel touched the doorknob and I cocked an eyebrow at him as the door swung open.

"Guess it cuts down on the stuff you have to carry in your pockets." I set Rex down in the kitchen and Diesel carried our stuff into one of the bedrooms. I helped him get everything set up and we went into the bathroom. We were both still wet and dirty. Because my apartment was ruined. Crap.

"I'm homeless," I said. I started to laugh. It was just too much.

"Hey Steph? Are you having a break down?"

"I might be."

"Why don't you move in here?" Diesel asked. I looked at Diesel. He was serious as far as I could tell. There were several reasons why this might not work. Diesel was always gone, he was immature and irresponsible. Then again, he was sweet, considerate, funny, and could probably make me happy, in the short term anyway. "Steph…I'm young but I think we could make this work. You can have the second room, pay rent, whatever you want to make you comfortable. You're right, I will be gone a lot, which is one reason I could use a roommate. I need someone to take care of my pets."

"Wait, you have pets?" I asked. I guess I didn't know as much about Diesel as I thought. Diesel nodded. "You really want to be roommates?"

"Yeah. Although right now I want to do something else." He leaned forward and pressed me against the glass shower door. He stared into my eyes and reached down to unbutton my jeans. He pushed them and my panties down my hips and I stepped out of them. His hands went to the hem of my shirt and he pulled it over my head and then unsnapped my bra deftly. He pressed me against the glass door and then silently stripped of his own clothes. Good god. This was certainly one reason to move in with him.

"We're still dirty," I said as he grabbed me and set me down on the vanity. He spread my legs wide and ran a finger over my slit.

"Don't care." He pushed the finger into me and I bucked my hips and grabbed onto the edge of the counter. His other hand went to my breast and he pinched a nipple roughly. "What do you want Steph?" He bent his lips to my collar bone and continued to finger fuck me gently. He nipped at my neck. "How do you want to do this Steph? Tell me."

"Hard. Now. Please." I let my head lull back as he spread my legs wider. I felt him press his dick to my entrance and I scooted foreword. I was wet but he was huge and I wasn't nearly ready enough. Diesel pressed himself into me slowly and I lifted my ass a little to give him better access.

"Fuck Steph, you're so tight." He bit my neck and I felt a rush of warm liquid in between my thighs. Diesel shoved himself inside of me all the way and I felt a zing of electricity go through me. He fucked me in hard slow strokes until I was begging him to go faster. I needed him to go faster and I tried to move my hips to meet his but it wasn't working in this position. Diesel pulled out of me and I groaned. Shit why did he stop? He sunk down to the floor and crossed his legs. He pulled me on top of him and I shoved myself down on to his cock, my legs bent and on either side of his waist. He helped me move up and down him fast, I was pounding myself down hard. He was filling me up completely and rubbing against my g-spot. I moved myself over him again and again until my thighs were on fire and I was almost too tired to move.

Diesel flipped me onto my back and started fucking me faster. "I can't hold off much longer Steph," He said through gritted teeth. I brought my hips up and wrapped my legs around his waist as his thrusts got rougher. That small adjustment was all it took. My body started shaking and my orgasm rolled over me. I dug my nails down his back and screamed into his neck as I came. I felt him tense above me as soon as I came. He dropped his head and his mouth found a nipple as he came inside of me. He gave a few more hard thrusts, sending mini orgasms through me before he collapsed on top of me. I realized he was still hard inside of me.

"Sorry, I should be able to move in a while…" Diesel said and I could tell he was grinning.

"I'll move in," I said when I caught my breath.

"Fuckin' A."

So maybe Diesel wasn't Mr. Right, but he was sure as hell Mr. Right Now.

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	10. Chapter 10

**A ltitle light lemony goodness. Enjoy.

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**

Diesel's mouth was on my nipple when I woke up and his hand was doing something amazing between my legs. I closed my eyes and let Diesel work his magic on me. Before long he had me on my hands and knees and oooh boy this man was amazing.

Afterwards I was lying with my back pressed against the hardwood floor, my head turned looking at Diesel with a smile. He smiled back and reached to brush a curl off of my forehead. "So you up for getting this place livable today?" He asked and stood up. I didn't take my eyes off of him as he walked into the bathroom and flipped on the shower. He cocked an eyebrow at me and I followed him into the shower.

I lathered my hair up with shampoo, "Yeah, what do we need to do?"

"Furniture, kitchen things, and make a few stops in Colorado for my stuff. Most of the furniture will stay there for my roommate." Diesel said and poured shower gel in his hand. Wait…he had a roommate there? Was it a girl? Cripes. I was jealous. I wasn't allowed to be jealous, we weren't a couple. "Not a girl. And you can be jealous, it's cute." He spread the shower gel over my back and I sighed. I turned to do him and traced my finger along the almost healed knife wound. Diesel shivered and I felt him harden against my belly.

"Again?" I asked as he lifted me so I could wrap my legs around his waist.

"I'm young, have excellent resiliency and recovery time." He slammed into me and my body started to hum. Diesel showed me just how resilient he was and when the water ran cold he touched the showerhead and it warmed back up. Finally when I couldn't take it anymore and my body was a quivering mass of jelly from the orgasms Diesel came. He leaned against the shower wall looking very pleased with himself as I slid down the wall and looked up at him with a huge grin.

I didn't know if I could do this every day, my body might just give up, and I wasn't sure I had time for three hour sex sessions every day. Probably once a week though. Yeah, once a week would be just about perfect. I got out of the shower just in time to hear my cell playing the batman theme song.

"Yo," I answered.

"Yo yourself. Are you naked?" Ranger asked, amusement in his voice. Damn how did he do that?

"How did you know that?" I asked as Diesel walked into the bedroom, towel around his hips.

"Hey I don't need that visual. Shit. Where are you?"

"Diesel's condo, I'm staying here. Why? What's up?" I could almost hear Ranger's teeth gritting together on the other end of the phone.

"We're still not sure what happened with your apartment. It's very strange. I don't want you out by yourself. I'm going to send someone to keep an eye on you."

"I'll be okay, Diesel and I have errands to do."

"Babe."

"Ranger, I don't imagine our talk will be much different than our last one. If my being with Diesel bothers you, than do something about it." The silence on the end of the line was palpable. "Alright then. Bye Batman." I hung up and shook my head. Diesel tossed me my clothes and I got dressed silently.

"I need to go by the office and drop off my body receipt from the guy yesterday."

"Sounds good."

Diesel locked up behind us with just a touch and we stopped by the condo's main office to get the keys. Diesel handed me one and I slid it on my keychain. Diesel followed me into the bond's office and I watched as Lula and Connie fanned themselves. Diesel twirled me around and kissed me hard, slipping his tongue into my mouth before pulling back, "I'm gonna go get donuts. I'll be right back." He slipped out the door and I turned to the girls. They pounced.

"Hooboy! You're glowing. You finally did Diesel!" Lula all but shouted. I sauntered to the counter and laid down my body receipt.

"Yeah, and get this, we're going to be roommates. Someone trashed my apartment last night and I got kicked out. Diesel just bought a huge condo here so…"

"And how's Ranger feel about that?" Lula asked. Shit. She had to ask that.

"I haven't quite told him I'm living with Diesel…just that I'm staying there."

"Well here's your chance to come clean." Connie said. The door behind me opened and Ranger walked up right behind me and laid a kiss on my neck that sent a zing to my doodah. Cripes. I turned to face Ranger.

"Hey." Very intelligent and put together Steph, Homer Simpson could have done better than that.

"Thought you said you were going to be with Diesel all day. I don't want you out alone."

"He just went to get donuts." I was looking out the window, trying to do anything I could to stop from staring into his dark eyes.

"Let me know when you find a new place. I'll get Hector over to install a new security system." He put a thumb under my chin and tried to make me look at him.

"I already found something," I said and looked away. I started fiddling with my shirt hem and looked to Lula and Connie for help. They were suddenly very busy filing.

"Stephanie." Ranger's voice held a tone that I'd never heard before. "Please tell me you're not going to move in with Diesel."

"He has an extra room."

"That we both know he doesn't want you to sleep in. Christ Steph he's twenty-three years old! He'd immature and dangerous as all hell."

"He's twenty-five and he's not that bad Ranger."

"He's twenty-three." Ranger gave me a look that told me he knew what he was talking about. Crap, was Diesel really only twenty-three? He had some explaining to do. "Babe, come stay at the Batcave, it'll be safer. Ella will cook and do your laundry." Damn it that was a bribe and it wasn't very nice.

"I can't. Every time…it just doesn't work Ranger." I lowered my voice, "I can't take you breaking my heart Ranger," It came out in nothing more than a whisper but I saw his eyes widen a little and he gave me a nod. "I thought I needed to figure out what I wanted, but I know. The ball is in your court Ranger."

"I think we're playing different games babe."

"That's my point. You decide you want to play the same game, come talk to me," I said with a sigh.

Ranger brushed a kiss over my lips and left the office. I sat down on the cracked fake leather couch.

"Tank says Ranger has been unbearable since Diesel came to town. He wants you Steph."

"Ranger wants to have sex with me, same as Diesel." At least I'm not in love with Diesel." Lula sucked in her breathe and her eyes settled behind me. I turned to see Diesel holding a box of donuts with a perfect imitation of Ranger's blank face on. Fuck.

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**Hope you liked it. Let me know. Thanks!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Happy Reading!

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**

I looked at Diesel and let all my emotions show on my face. I loved Diesel. I just wasn't in love with Diesel. Right now. He gave me a small nod and for a moment I was confused. Oh right, I'd forgotten he could read my mind. _Don't be mad Diesel. I really do love you. You're an amazing friend, an amazing person._

"It's okay Steph. I love you too. Let's go get the condo furnished." Diesel set down the box of donuts. Connie and Lula were looking at us like they had missed something. Which, I guess they had.

"See you guys later." I grabbed Diesel's hand as we walked out and then I pushed him against the Jeep. "Don't be sad Diesel." I stood up on my tiptoes and pressed my lips to his. He responded by lifting me up and sitting me on the hood of the jeep. He stepped in between my legs and slid his tongue in between my lips. I felt his hands push up the back of my shirt and I fisted my hands in his hair.

"Christ if you don't stop that I'll have to give you a ticket," I heard. I sighed into Diesel's mouth and pulled away to face Joe. Diesel turned around with a smirk on his face. "Jesus, does Ranger know you're doing Diesel in broad daylight on the hood of your car?" Joe asked.

"It's not any of Ranger's business. Or yours," I said.

Joe grinned, "Cupcake you never fail to make me need that Maalox. You two behave yourselves," Joe said and went into the bonds office. What thbue hell was he doing there?

I shrugged to myself and looked at Diesel. "You ready?" Diesel gave me a wolfish grin and stepped back in between my legs. He brought his lips back to mine and pulled me to him. We were about twenty seconds away from ripping off each other's clothes off when I heard the office door open.

"Jesus Cupcake, I wasn't kidding about that ticket. Go get a room." I head Joe jump in his car and I finally pulled away from Diesel.

"We do have a lot to do…" I said and Diesel sighed. He pulled me off the car and hopped into the driver's seat of the Jeep.

It took us forever to get everything done but it was fun. We decided that IKEA would be the best place to one stop shop and we were right, we got everything from furniture and linens to lamps and dishes.

It took several trips to get everything back to the condo but Diesel was amazingly fast and I had to wonder how he was doing it. I was tempted to think he was just driving somewhere no one could see him and then popping the boxes and bags into the condo. When we were finally done with that it was off to Super Target to get all the other stuff we'd need and some food.

When we got back I started putting the kitchen stuff away and when I went back into the living room everything was set up. I checked both bedrooms and bathrooms. Everything was set up there too. I went back to the kitchen and caught Diesel putting away a glass.

"How the hell did you do that?" I asked.

"Magic. Come on we're going to Colorado to get my stuff." Diesel grabbed my hand and I didn't get a chance to close my eyes. I was suddenly standing in an apartment, smaller than the one we were living in now. A guy stepped out of what I assumed was a bathroom, clad only in a towel. Yikes. Diesel's roommate looked like an even younger version of him.

"Steph this is my little brother Brooklyn, usually he wears pants when people come over. Brook this is Stephanie, she's gonna be living with me in Trenton."

"Nice to meet you, I'm gonna go put on pants." Brooklyn walked across the hall.

"Is he uh…"

"Way too young for you? Yes." Diesel said with a grin. I smacked him in the shoulder.

"I was going to ask if he was unmentionable. But sense you mentioned age, is there something you want to tell me?" I asked.

"Brook is eighteen," Diesel said.

"And you're how old?" _Don't lie to me Diesel. _

"Fuck. Twenty-three." I stared at Diesel. "Sorry. You freaked out enough when you saw twenty-five on the fake license and so I didn't want to tell you the truth." I sighed and grinned, I couldn't stay mad at Diesel.

Brooklyn walked back into the living room with jeans and even a shirt. "So Diesel told me you're a bounty hunter?"

"Yeah, what do you do?"

"Uh…the same thing Diesel does…"

"Are there really that many of you guys that go psycho and start pixie dusting people?" I asked.

Brooklyn's eyes went wide and he looked at Diesel, "You told her?" He didn't look mad or anything, just surprised. "And now you too are living together…like a couple?"

"Like roommates…" The unspoken words were more powerful than the spoken ones. "We're here to get the animals and my other stuff, you want to help?" Brooklyn didn't answer, he was staring at me. "Brook?"

"Sorry, I was distracted. Yeah I'll help." Diesel grabbed my hand and we went to his room. I looked around and grinned. I'd expected frat boy central but instead it was just a normal modern room. Except for the aquariums. There were two with fish, one with a snake and one huge one with an equally huge lizard.

"Don't worry, they won't bite." Diesel said. "I'll be right back." He grabbed a cage and POP.

Brooklyn came in the room, "So…you're sleeping with my brother." I gave Brooklyn a look. "What? Jeez, sorry. He's trying to block me out. I was curious why."

Diesel popped back, "Maybe to give her some privacy. Jeez Brook. Make yourself useful. Steph? Can you hold this for a few seconds?" He dropped the snake in my arms. Holy hell. It was heavy and big.

Diesel and Brooklyn popped out and I looked at the boa. "Hi. I'm Stephanie. Please don't eat me." Diesel popped back, touched my arm and then we were back in the condo. "Hey I'm getting used to the popping." I wasn't sure that was a good thing or not. Diesel grinned and grabbed the snake and popped it into its tank.

I stayed behind while Diesel and Brooklyn popped back and forth with more stuff. There was a knock at the door. I walked over and answered, surprised to see Hector.

"Hey Bomber, Ric sent me over to do a prelim check to see about installing a security system."

"Why didn't Ranger come himself?"

"Didn't know if you'd want him too." Hector said. I walked over to the window and saw the Turbo with a dark figure leaning against it. I went out on to the balcony and looked down at Ranger.

"Come on up Ranger." He gave me a nod and walked towards the front of the building. He was up a few seconds later.

"Hey Babe." He looked almost abashed.

I wrapped my arms around him and gave him a squeeze, "Hey Ranger. Come on, I'll show you around." I showed him the living room, kitchen and then Diesel's room. My room was last on the tour and Ranger raised an eyebrow at me. "What? I told you he had an extra room."

"So you did." Ranger sighed, "Babe…" He gave me a sad look.

"Ranger, you can't even get past 'babe', when you can, we'll talk." I said and gave his hand a squeeze. I felt Diesel pop in and walked back out to the living room, Ranger following. "Hey Ranger, Hector, this is Brooklyn, Diesel's brother. Brooklyn this is Ranger, my…friend, and Hector, one of his employees and a friend." The men exchanged some pleasantries and I sidled up to Diesel and he wrapped an arm around me. Ranger's eyes got dark again and he walked away and then out the front door.

"Bomber, you're killing him." Hector said.

"You know what? That's not my problem. He doesn't want me, but no one else can have me either? What the hell is that huh?"

"Wish I could tell you Bombshell." He walked out after Ranger and I sighed.

"Wow. That was intense," Brooklyn said. I sent him a death glare. "Christ you could scare the collar of a priest with that look."

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	12. Chapter 12

**New chapter. Hope you like it. Change of pace for sure. **

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**Ranger's POV**

I heard a sickening crunch as the FTA that I had just tackled went down. He screamed out as his body landed on his arm, cracking the bone and leaving it under his body at a grotesque angle. I didn't care, I wasn't in the mood to be fucked with and he'd taken a potshot at me. He easily had 100 pounds on me but I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and hauled him up to his feet. I slapped cuffs on him, ignoring his angry screams. I pushed him over to Lester and stalked outside. I wasn't in the mood to deal with the paperwork. I was in the mood for a fight. The feel of kick and punching, the thrill of knowing I was better. The sound of bones crunching. Maybe if I could fight someone I could get my mind off Babe.

My phone rang and I knew instinctively that it was her, again, for possibly the hundereth time today, the thousandth this week. Her messages were all the same, her voice sad but with no room for negotiation. She didn't understand why we couldn't be friends. We'd been friends when she was with Morelli, why not when she was with Diesel? She missed me. Please call back.

The reason was simple, Morelli had wanted to give her something I couldn't, and I wouldn't deny her love, marriage and a baby carriage if that's what she wanted. But did she really think Diesel would give her those things? Christ the guy could barely be bothered to get dressed before he left the house in the morning.

Maybe she didn't think so; maybe she just knew that I couldn't. Damn it though, it wasn't that I didn't want to. I love Steph, more than she knows but I can't be a good husband, a good father. That much was obvious to me, and it was apparently obvious to her too, or she wouldn't have gone off with Diesel. She wouldn't have stayed with Joe for years and dealt with all his crap if she hadn't wanted to get married someday right?

Fuck. I was all sorts of messed up. Not taking her calls was killing me; the hurt in her voice was horrible. I swore as my phone started ringing again, I let it go to voicemail and jumped into the Turbo. Twenty minutes later I was going way too fast on a road to nowhere when my phone rang again. It was Tank, I hit a button and the Bluetooth on my phone picked it up and his voice came through the car speakers.

"Boss, Bombshell's panic button just went off. She's at Manny's on Stark. You're closest."

What the fuck was she doing on Stark? "Send back up." I looked around and realized that I was fairly close. I made a few turns and pulled in front of Manny's not ten minutes later. I didn't know what was going on and I had no time to wait for back up, not if Babe was really in trouble. I walked in the front door, gun drawn. There was no one; I heard Steph screaming from the back. It took all my will power not to just run back there. I checked the rooms quickly but thoroughly as I passed them. The door to the back room was locked; I kicked it in and surveyed the room. My vision went red. Two guys with guns were holding Stephanie on the floor, a third guy was on top of her. Three quick shots and the men were down before they'd even gotten the look of shock off of their faces at my entrance.

I walked over to Steph; she was struggling to get the naked man off of her. I tossed him away and looked her over. Her clothes we torn and her leg was bent at an awkward angle, she was crying. She looked away from me and tried to sit up.

"Babe, look at me. Are you okay? Did he do anything to you?" I couldn't tell, her pants were around her ankles but her panties were still on, although torn. Her shirt was in tatters. I sighed in relief as she shook her head no.

"You got here…I…my leg hurts and my ribs. I tried to call you but you didn't answer." Christ. This was my fault. Her eye was swelling and the ribs were bruising already, they were probably broken.

"I'm so sorry Babe." I heard the door open and knew my backup had arrived. "Hold on a second guys!" I shouted out the door. I stood Steph up, careful not to jostle her leg. She still started crying harder. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to get the jeans up her leg without doing some damage so I pulled them off carefully, grateful she was wearing underwear that actually covered her ass for once. I pulled off her tattered shirt and replaced it with my own, which hung down to her thighs. I put my leather jacket on over that and zipped it up. She was decent enough for the trip to the hospital. I scooped her up in my arms and I strode out of the room.

Poor Babe, she certainly didn't deserve this. Tank's eyes met mine as I came out of the room and went to Bomber. His eyes darkened. "Three down. Her leg's broken, probably some broken ribs. I'm taking her to the hospital. Call Morelli." I looked down at Steph, "Babe you want us to call Diesel?"

She shook her head no, "He's off the grid all day, said he wouldn't be reachable. I shouldn't have gone alone." Tears were pouring out of her eyes again and it just about broke my heart. I walked out of the building and sat her down in the front seat of the Turbo. She groaned in pain.

"Steph, do you want to wait here for an ambulance?"

"God no. Just drive." She turned her head to look at me and smiled as I started the car. "If I'd know all I needed to do to get you to talk to me was get beat and almost raped I would have done it sooner."

"I'm so sorry."

"Don't apologize, it's not your job to save me Ranger. I miss you though." I glance at her and sighed.

"Steph I miss you too, but it's just too damn hard to be around you when you're with Diesel."

She looked at me incredulously, "What do you mean?"

"Babe I could understand when you were with Morelli, he could offer you something I can't, marriage, kids all that. But Diesel? You really want to settle down with him?"

I glanced at her again as I pulled up to the emergency entrance to the hospital. "Ranger, I don't want to get married, or have kids any time soon. I broke up with Joe because I love you. That's all there is too it. I'd be happy enough without marriage or kids if I could just be with you."

I took a second to digest everything she just said, "Then why Diesel?"

"I may not want a ring Ranger but I still want something more than you sneaking into my apartment at night. And I know you love me, but the qualifiers on that are too much. I'm glad you love me in your own way, but I love you in every way."

It's now or never Ranger. She loves you too. Go for it. "Babe I love you too."

"In your own way," she said and looked out the window.

"In every way." The words were far easier to say than I'd ever thought possible.

"Did I already take pain medicine?"

I raised an eyebrow, "No?"

"Oh my god. You love me!" I chuckled and she looked at me odd, "wait I must be drugged up, you just laughed."

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**Good Change? Bad Change? You have no idea what I'm talking about? Aliens are coming? Something? Anything? Bueller?**


	13. Chapter 13

**It's been a few days, hopefully this chapter helps.

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Ranger's POV

I shook my head at Stephanie, amazed that she could make jokes when she was obviously in so much pain. I got out of the car and quickly walked around to her side and lifted her out gently. She rested her head on my shoulder; her breath was hot on my throat and my pants got uncomfortably snug. Crap. "Uh babe? Can you stop breathing on my throat?" Her eyebrow went up. "It makes me happy…very happy…"

Stephanie giggled and then groaned as her ribs protested, "Sorry, it's not funny." She paused for a second as we walked into the ER, "Okay it's a little funny." I shook my head at her. Her tongue darted out and caressed my jaw line and I damn near dropped her. What the hell was she trying to do to me?

"Christ Babe." I walked her up to the admitting counter, "Hi, this is Stephanie Plum, she was in a little accident, I think she has a broken leg and some broken ribs."

"Alright, fill out these forms," she handed me a clipboard which Stephanie grabbed, "A doctor will be with you as soon as possible."

I stared at the nurse for a minute but she didn't seem to see that making us wait was bad. Steph pulled on my sleeve, "it's okay Ranger, let's go fill out the forms." I gave the nurse a look that should have made her reconsider but she wasn't paying attention. I sighed and sat down, keeping Stephanie on my lap. Stephanie looked at the top form. "I don't have health insurance."

"Yes you do."

"No I don't"

"You have health insurance through Rangeman. Good health insurance. I put the card in your office mailbox."

"I have an office mailbox?" Stephanie asked. I sighed, pulled out my phone and dialed Cal.

"Boss?"

"Can you go into Stephanie's mailbox, get her insurance card and read me the info?"

"On my way." A few minutes later Cal came back on and gave me the info. I filled out the form quickly and moved onto the next one. I filled out all of Stephanie's personal and medical history without thinking about it. I paused when it asked about her last period and looked at Stephanie.

"Okay, I'm a little freaked out that you knew all that. And I can finish it, thank you." She filled in the date quickly and I did some mental math.

"Babe you're late." My mind was running a million miles a minute. She was pregnant. With Diesel's baby.

Stephanie looked at me like I was crazy. "No I'm not." She thought for a second, "Okay. I'm late but only a few days, and I'm not pregnant." We looked at each other for a minute. "Seriously. No way."

"Okay," A lady in pink scrubs came up to us and I handed her the newly finished paperwork. She led us back to a curtained room and took Steph's vitals.

"Can you tell me what happened?" The nurse asked. Stephanie shot me a glance and I shrugged.

"There was an accident." Steph said with a shrug. The nurse gave me a dirty look.

"Why don't you go wait in the other room sir?" It wasn't a question. It was a command. I gave Steph a quick kiss and started to step away but she grabbed my arm.

"No! Ranger! Don't leave. Cripes. A few bikers beat me up and tried to rape me. Batman here saved my ass," she said angrily to the nurse. I almost smiled.

"Oh, ok, sorry. The doctor will be in shortly." She left and pulled the curtain behind her.

Stephanie squeezed my hand, "did you mean it?"

"Yes," I said.

"Okay." She sent me a smile and I smiled back. I wanted to keep her distracted somehow but I couldn't think of anything to say.

"Can I ask you a question?" She finally asked.

I nodded, "Anything babe." Anything to keep you from remembering that you've got broken bones.

"How long?"

"How long what?"

"Have you loved me?" She had to ask that question.

"It's difficult to pinpoint. The first time I saw you there was a pull that I've never felt before. I think I realized I loved you when you were trying to capture me. God Steph. You amaze me." I earned a smile from her.

"So what are we going to do now?"

"Can we just see what happens?" I asked. I wasn't sure about how to work a relationship right this second.

"Sounds good to me." She bit her lip, "I hurt."

"Is there anything I can do?" I asked. I hated that she was hurting.

"Kiss me." Now that I could do. I gently pressed my lips against hers and she moaned and slid her tongue into my mouth. I heard a throat clearing behind me and I pulled myself away from her silently and turned to face the doctor.

He poked and prodded her and they set her leg and put a cast on it. Her ribs were wrapped and she was given a large dose of pain medication. By the time I wheeled her out she was giggling happily. "Steph? Where do you wanna go babe? My place or yours?"

She looked at me with wide eyes. "I don't know Ranger. What if Diesel's not home? What if I need something to eat? I won't be able to get it myself. I'll starve!" She sounded genuinely worried.

"Babe. I'd never let you starve. You do need someone with you. Why don't we stop and see if Diesel is home?" Stephanie drugged up was faintly amusing.

"I want you to stay." I raised an eyebrow. "You keep doing that and your face might be frozen stuck that way."

"Even if Diesel is there?"

"I need cake." I shook my head at the change of subject. Stephanie babbled about cake the rest of the drive and I sighed. It was going to be a long night.

Stephanie wasn't sure where her purse was and I realized we'd never grabbed it from the building. I knocked and Diesel opened the door wearing boxers. That was the cherry on top of my fucked-up sundae.

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**Yay?**


	14. Chapter 14

**Some people might hate me for this...others wont...I promise its all part of a larger plan for a HEA. **

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**Ranger POV**

Diesel opened the door wide for me and I turned sideways to get Stephanie inside. "What happened?" He asked as I carried Steph to her room. She was grinning like an idiot at Diesel and I felt a surge of jealousy.

"She went to Stark and got beat up. Broken ribs, broken leg. We got there just in time to stop them from…doing other stuff." I sat Steph on her bed and she looked at me very seriously.

"Can I talk to Diesel alone?" I nodded and turned to leave, "Don't leave the condo please?" I nodded again and shut the door behind myself. I sat on the couch and rested my forearms on my legs, letting my head hang down. I was exhausted. I hadn't slept for a few nights now and now the stress of Steph's panic button going off and her rescue was starting to set in.

Diesel finally came out of the bedroom and he had a big grin on his face. "Congrats man, 'bout time you got your head out of your ass and admitted you love that girl."

I shook my head, "its hard not to."

"Yeah it is. She wants you. She's still a little loopy."

"Are you guys…" I trailed off, not knowing how to ask if I could be with Steph.

"Friends. We were always friends. We were just really friendly for a while." Diesel said with a wink. I shook my head and walked into Steph's room.

"Hey Babe." Steph said, I raised an eyebrow and sat down next to her.

"I think that's my line." I gave her a crooked smile.

She sat up with a groan, "You know I have to say, as good as Diesel looks in those boxers, you look much better without any." What the hell was she trying to do to me? I shifted and she raised an eyebrow, "That means you should get naked and join me in bed."

"Babe, you've got three broken ribs and a broken leg." Still, even as I said it I stood and pulled my shirt off. I watched as Stephanie licked her lips. "No sex." I said and dropped my pants. I went over to her and helped her out of the scrubs that the hospital had given her. Once she was naked I turned off the light and laid down beside her. I ran my fingers over her skin slowly. "It's been a long time since I got to touch you like this babe." I bent and ran my tongue over her collarbone. Her shiver would have been enough to make me hard if I hadn't already been there.

"You said no sex, it's not nice to tease Ranger." I smiled at her in the dark and nipped at her neck.

"I'm not teasing you Babe." I slid my tongue down her stomach and incited another full body shiver. She parted her legs for me and I stopped. I wanted to see what I was doing. I got up and turned on the light. She raised an eyebrow but I just settled myself back in between her legs. She was perfect; I could see her wetness glistening on her bare skin, I ran my finger over her lips and glanced up at her, "You shaved?"

"Waxed."

"I like it." I let my tongue take the same trail my finger had and she bucked her hips. She tasted good, sweet like honey and I let my tongue dip into her center. Her moans egged me on and I continued to lick and nibble at her until she was begging me to touch her clit. I slid two fingers into her and sucked her clit in my mouth in the same movement. Her hands fisted themselves into my hair and it made me moan into her pussy. I continued to thrust my fingers in and out of her and after a minute I added a third. Her walls were clenching hard at my fingers, trying to keep my fingers inside of her.

"Ranger please, I need for you to be in me." I sighed and pulled out my fingers. I made sure I had her attention as I licked them clean. Her eyes dilated a notch. I knew mine were completely black. I licked my lips, getting all of her juices off of them.

"You have to tell me stop if it hurts okay?" I said, she nodded eagerly and I moved on top of her, making sure not to put any weight on her torso. I brushed my lips over her ear, "I love you Stephanie." I pushed myself slowly inside of her, she was wet but still so tight and it felt wonderful to fill her. I held still for a moment and chuckled as her walls clenched around me. "Babe you keep doing that and I won't last." I started moving slowly at first but I knew it wasn't enough for her. Babe liked to be fucked hard and fast. I was glad I was in shape, because keeping my weight off of her was no easy task.

Stephanie bent her unbroken leg and I was able to slip deeper inside of her. I started moving faster and harder until she was panting underneath me. My mouth found her neck and I sucked hard. Her hips bucked and I knew her ribs had to be hurting but she was right there on that ledge. I reached down and rubbed her clit until I felt her start to spasm around me. God that feeling was amazing. I had been close but the gush of wetness between her legs set me off and soon I was spilling myself deep inside of her.

I rolled onto my side and returned the huge smile she was giving me. "That was superriffic."

"You're still high aren't you?" I asked.

"Little bit." She giggled and I turned off the light before pulling her close to me. "Love you forever Ranger."

"Love you forever Babe." I wasn't ready for marriage but I was ready to be with my babe. I waited until she fell into a deep sleep before drifting off. When I woke up it was to knocking on the bedroom door. I glanced over and Steph was still asleep. I pulled the sheets up so she was covered and grabbed my pants. I opened the door to find Diesel similarly attired. Shit.

"Hey sorry, the doctor is on the phone for Steph, some test results they forget to give her yesterday I guess." He handed me the phone and I walked over to wake Steph up.

"Babe, the doctor is on the phone?" She groaned and grabbed the phone.

"Yeah?" She listened for a moment and then sat bolt upright, eliciting a scream of pain. "FUCK. No. Not you. Well that too. Are you sure? Alright. Thanks." She hit the end button and looked at me. "I need to talk to Diesel." I felt the blood drain from my face. Shit.

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**TBC of course. Give me your thoughts?!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hey everyone! Please read my AN at the bottom when you're done!

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I looked at Ranger, I was panicking slightly. Ok, I was panicking a lot. We'd finally just decided that we wanted to make a go of us and now this? Cripes. The look on Ranger's face wasn't as bad as I thought. I mean he had to have figured it out but he didn't look mad. He looked…resigned maybe.

"Babe?" I shook my head confirming his fears. "Does this mean…uh…are you going to stay with Diesel?" Ranger asked, his voice low.

"What? No! I love you. Cripes. I mean obviously this is going to change things for you. I understand that. I don't expect you to want to be with me anymore." I wanted to get up, to find something to do, but I couldn't stand by myself.

Ranger reached over and took a hold of my hand. "It doesn't. It should. I realize it should change everything, but it doesn't. Damn it Steph, it took me this long to admit that I love you and want you, and I'm not letting anything get in the way of us anymore." Ranger gave me a half grin and I smiled back in surprise.

"Really?" I couldn't quite believe it. Ranger wasn't a sharing type of person. I couldn't see him helping me raise Diesel's baby. I looked at him skeptically and I was rewarded with a shrug.

"Okay, I'm not going to lie. I'm pissed. But not at you. I wish it was my baby in there. I wish I would have done things a little different. To be honest, I think you're going to need some support. I can't imagine Diesel sticking around."

I nodded, "I need to talk to him. Can you help me?" I asked. Ranger stood up and helped me into the bathroom. I awkwardly went pee and hobbled over to the sink to wash my hands. Ranger came in and helped me put some pajamas on. He walked me out to the living room and sat me on the couch right behind Diesel, who was playing Wii baseball. "Thanks."

Ranger nodded, "I'll be in the shower." He gave me a gentle kiss and walked into the bathroom. I was going to have to examine Ranger's change in demeanor later.

I was pregnant. Cripes. How did that happen? I mean, I knew how it happened but, wow. I'd never really wanted kids. Maybe in a "someday" type of way. But apparently someday was now and I was a little freaked out.

"Hey Steph, you okay? What did the doctor want?" Diesel asked after hitting a homer.

So, like a bandaid? Just rip it off? No, better to go slow. "Diesel? I'm pregnant." It just popped out when I opened my mouth. Diesel took a step backwards so he could sit on the couch, next to me. He missed by a few inches and landed on his ass in front of the couch.

"With a baby?"

"No. With a puppy. YES WITH A BABY!"

"Don't yell at me!"

"Sorry I'm freaking out!"

Diesel stood up and sat down next to me. He wrapped me in his arms and started running his hands up and down my back. "Okay, this is going to be okay. We can do this. We're adults." I had my doubts about that. I usually didn't feel like an adult. Diesel never acted like an adult. "How do you want to handle this Steph?"

"I haven't even thought about that Diesel. I need some time to think." I mean I'd only just found out, and I didn't quite believe it yet. My options were limited, abortion, that was out, adoption seemed ridiculous at my age, so keeping the baby was the really the only thing I could do. "I want to keep the baby." _Want_ was a stretch but I couldn't think of another way to say it. Diesel and I had had made our bed, now we had to lay in it.

"I want to do whatever I can to help. You're a very good friend Steph and I don't want to ruin that. I love you."

"I love you too." I said.

Diesels hand went to my stomach, "Seriously?" I nodded. I heard the door open behind us and Ranger stepped out of the bedroom.

"Hey, I just got a call Steph, break in at one of my buildings. Diesel? You cool with feeding and watering her while I'm gone?" Ranger asked. I gave him 'Burg hand gesture and he chuckled before giving me a toe curling kiss and walking out the door.

"You know I've never been scared of Ranger. How he's taking this though? It's fucking terrifying. Shouldn't he have shot me or something?" Diesel asked.

"I'm as surprised as you are. It's downright freaky," I said. "I need to shower and get dressed."

"I gotta say, I'm loving this broken leg thing. I'm still going to get to see you naked." Diesel said as he stood up. Apparently we were going to ignore the elephant in the room. Or the baby in my womb as the case may be. He pulled me and helped me hobble into the bathroom. Despite Diesel's comment we managed to let me keep a little bit of my dignity.

"What are we going to do today?" I asked Diesel.

"We can go to breakfast?" Diesel offered.

I knew I probably wasn't going to get much more than that. Ranger would've kept me in bed all day. I nodded and Diesel grabbed my crutches. We decided it was easier if I used one crutch and Diesel held my other side. He got me into the passenger side of my Jeep and Diesel hopped into the driver's side.

"Do you know how far along you are?" Diesel suddenly asked.

"Nope, if it was in Seattle…what that's been nine weeks now." Truthfully I couldn't say. I don't actually keep track of my period, I couldn't remember having it after getting back from Seattle, the number I'd written on the form was random. "Coulda been last week though." I added.

Diesel drove us to breakfast, I scanned the tables there was nothing open. Joe was sitting in the back by himself and waved us over. Seriously? I glanced and Diesel and he shrugged. We went and sat down.

"Heard you managed to get yourself beat up Cupcake, you alright?" He asked.

Apparently my brain wasn't attached to my mouth because I blurted out, "I'm finally with Ranger but Diesel got me pregnant." My hands flew up to cover my mouth as Joe's dropped open. Diesel was looking at me with a grin.

"Jesus Christ. I didn't bring my Maalox today."

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**Ok, so before the murdering starts, I will tell you that I have every intention of this being a babe HEA now. So not too much freaking out. So from now on there will be a lot of Steph/Ranger love and a lot of Steph/Ranger/Diesel comedy. :) **


	16. Chapter 16

**New Chapter! Enjoy!!!**

"You can't tell anyone that!" I said to Joe. Crap, what was wrong with me today? I just kept blurting shit out. It wasn't like it was bad enough that Diesel and I had gotten pregnant when we weren't even dating, but now I was telling the world. My mom was going to kill me. Or worse yet, cut me off from pineapple upside-down cake.

"No problem cupcake. In fact, I'm going to pretend I never even found out." He looked at Diesel. "Good luck with…that…" He said and stood up to leave.

"Thanks man." Diesel ordered us both breakfast. "So Stephanie, uh…"

"Yeah I know the feeling Diesel."

"I thought you were on birth control Steph?" Diesel asked. I liked that he wasn't trying to blame me, just asking.

"I was. I am. I'm sorry." Not that it was only my fault.

"Not your fault at all Steph. I coulda used condoms." Diesel said.

My cell rang and I answered it with a "Yeah?"

"Steph this is Bobby, Please tell me you've seen Ranger?"

"Uh, no, why?"

"He told me about…you…and he seemed a little depressed so I gave him some Zoloft. Only I didn't. I gave him something else." Bobby sounded very worried.

"Bobby, what did you give him?"

"Ecstasy."

Jesus. "Bobby! Why do you even have that? Ranger is gonna kill you!"

"I know, I know. I'm gonna have Tank turn on his tracker. See if he answers his phone."

I hung up and dialed Ranger just as a shock of electricity went through me. I turned to see Ranger coming towards our table. He turned a chair around and straddled it. "Hey Babe, Baby Daddy."

"Ranger are you okay?" I asked.

"I am super." Ranger said with a huge grin. Holy shit. Ranger had a killer smile.

"Baby were gonna take you back to Bobby real quick okay?"

"Sure, whatever you wanna do," Ranger said complacently and smiled at me again. Whooboy. I stood up and grabbed Ranger's hand. He pulled me to him and kissed me, shoving his tongue in my mouth and melting me into little puddle.

"Steph? Can we get Romeo here to Bobby? It's freaking me out. I don't feel his usual animosity."

We walked to the car and Ranger tried to get into his Turbo. I snagged him by the waistband of his pants and grabbed his keys and tossed them to Diesel. He grinned and jumped in. I settled Ranger in my passenger seat and got in the driver's side.

"I love you Stephanie."

"I love you too Ranger."

"Stephanie?"

"Yeah?"

"I think you should move in with me."

"I think we should wait till you're not surfing the E wave to talk about that."

"Oki doki," he said. I snapped my head to the right to look at him. Cripes. He just said oki doki. I shook my head and drove a little faster. I remoted us into the Rangeman garage, the turbo was already parked and Ranger smiled at me again. We rode the elevator up to the 5th floor and Bobby met us at the elevator.

"Did you tell him?"

"Tell me what?" Ranger asked and gave Bobby a hug. Bobby froze.

"Maybe we should just keep giving it to him?" Bobby asked me with a grin. Diesel came around the corner and gave Ranger a glass of water.

"Thank you Diesel. You're not giving me a headache." I grinned at Ranger as he gave Diesel a hug. Diesel looked at me in shock and I shrugged.

"He's like some weird hippy," Diesel said.

I tossed Diesel my keys "See you later." Diesel nodded and left. I took Ranger to the elevator and he pressed himself against me.

One of his hands went up my shirt and under my bra and he pinched my nipple as his mouth found my neck. His hands travelled down my stomach and found the buttons on my jeans. I knew the guys in control were getting a show but I couldn't make myself care at this point. I had gone from amused to drenched in two seconds flat. The elevator dinged and I pushed Ranger out.

When I closed his apartment door and turned he was looking at me like I was something to eat. "Ranger maybe you should rest."

"No, I've got lots of energy; I need to get it out." Ooooh Boy. Ranger stalked towards me and pressed himself against me. I sighed and grabbed his hand, leading him to the bedroom. Make love with Ranger was usually fast paced and hard, it could go for hours but there was usually a frantic pace, we just couldn't get enough of each other.

Today Ranger wasn't in any hurry. He laid me down and after that every movement he made was carefully considered and slow. He pulled my clothes off, kissing every inch of uncovered skin until I felt like I was on fire. I bit my lip as he pulled off his own clothes; he looked every bit like a Greek statue, only with darker skin. He laid himself on top of me and went over every inch of my body again, licking and sucking until I was begging him to fuck me. His fingers trailed down my abdomen to my wet folds, the one place he hadn't yet touched. He slid a finger up and down my slit and then pushes it into me slowly. His tongue is tangling with mine as he pumps a finger in and out of me.

He slides in another finger and slowly curls both of them to make a come here signal against my g-spot. I can feel the orgasm burning low in my belly, building hotter and hotter. Ranger was sucking on my neck now and I knew I was going to have one hell of a hickey. Ranger started in murmuring Spanish in my ear. His voice was deeper than usual, had more of an accent. It was turning me on. I was close to cumming and my moans were getting louder. He pulled his fingers out of me and made sure I was watching as he sucked them clean. He settled on top of me and nudged my legs further apart. I felt his cock press against my hot wet folds and I tried to tilt my hips to take him into me but he was still moving slowly. I was savoring it but I needed him inside me now. I was aching to have him slide his hard cock into my tight cunt.

I bucked my hip and let out a whiney moan. Rangers lips crashed down on mine and he finally started to slide inside me. Even this was deliberately slow. I brought my hips up and this time he let me. He slid into me as deeply as he could and then back out. He kept up an agonizingly slow rhythm. The fire in my belly had spread to my entire body until all I could even hope to think about was him inside me. We moved together for hours until we were both slick with sweat and panting.

"Please. Ranger." I could barely get the words out. I looked up and smiled, he grinned back and then I watched as his eyes rolled back into his head. He stopped moving and then collapsed on top of me.

Holy shit. I manage to roll Ranger off of me and grab my phone. "BOBBY GET UP HERE NOW!" I hung up and called 911 and relayed the same basic message.

"Ranger? Babe?" He's breathing and that calms my nerves.

Bobby bursts in and skids to halt at the door. "Christ. What happened?" He asks. He checks for a pulse and looks relieved.

"He just collapsed!"

"How long were you two…uh?"

"Since we were downstairs."

"Jesus, he's dehydrated. You just screwed for four hours," Bobby said with a slight smirk, "He'll be fine. The hospital will fix him up." He looked me over, "you might want to put on some clothes…"

I looked down a shrieked, "Cripes!" I ran to the closet and threw on some sweats. Ranger was talking when I came back. I felt myself relax. "Hey you."

"You can't let me go to the hospital. Too much sex isn't an injury."

"No Ric, it's my dream. Damn you." Bobby said with a grin.

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**What did you think?**


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